PTAs and Parents Associations: what does yours do?

[Anna8888]

The Parents Association at my daughter's (French-English bilingual) school was reformed last year when the former Chair retired after years of a total stand-off between Parents Association and school management.

The new governing committee has worked very hard at building bridges with school management over the past year, and is now beginning to launch new activities. The Parents Association sponsors and organises the school end of year fête (primary) and ball (secondary) and is trying to launch new activities within the school and to help parents better understand and support their children's education (international school).

What does your PTA / Parents Association do that you value/recommend?

we do functions like wine and wisdom, ladies night, quiz night etc
for the children we do school discos etc
then we have summer fairs, christmas fairs
raffle at easter etc
sponsered reads
dress up days

Do you fundraise for the school or for charities?

for the school (its a special school though)
we do occassional charity days like jeans for genes days

Do you do anything to support the parents in bringing up children with special needs?

no, its something we are working on atm anna its as though you have read my mind! We did a couple of workshops recently (free ones) but we are thinking of extending this. I think the most important thing is to help parents realise they are not excluded from the school so that they are more willing to support it, iykwim

That's what we are working on - workshops to support parents in bringing up their children . Not a special school, but a bilingual and international one, so lots of parents who come from abroad (who don't know the school system or how life for families in Paris "works") and French parents who would like their children to grow up multi-lingual but who don't really understand how to go about supporting their children beyond paying school/teachers to do it.

I am currently putting together a workshop with an expert and author on bilingualism. We have had one already with a "green" expert to help us live a bit more healthily in the urban fug, and we are due one with a psychologist to talk about positive discipline.

Any more ideas?

that sounds really positive anna

I'm very impressed with your ideas Anna. A nice change from just fundraising for sports facilities. That's worthwhile, but there could be so much more to a PTA. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks - I'm looking for more ideas though of course am very happy to share the ideas that our parents association is working on.

Any more ideas?

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